1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to an exhaust pipe structure, and, more specifically, to the structure of a portion that supports an exhaust pipe.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-82624 A discloses an exhaust pipe structure. In the disclosed exhaust pipe structure, stoppers that restrict the movement of an exhaust pipe supporting rubber member are provided on the right side and left sides of the supporting rubber member. This structure prevents excessive rolling of the exhaust pipe.
However, because the movement of the supporting rubber member is restricted, the exhaust pipe structure disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-82624 A has the following problems:    (a) The supporting rubber member frequently contacts the stopper. Accordingly, the supporting rubber member having sufficiently high strength needs to be prepared.    (b) Noise and vibration, which are caused due to contact between the supporting rubber member and the stopper, are transmitted into a vehicle compartment, resulting in higher levels noise and vibration in the vehicle compartment.
Further, document JP 2000-120785 discloses an exhaust pipe support structure that is suitable to reduce manufacturing costs of an exhaust pipe support structure and that is able to regulate lateral oscillation of the exhaust pipe. Therefore, a front of a support member extending from a vehicular body is bent to substantially be U-shaped in order to prepare a base portion and a front bent portion. A support device main body is prepared by elastically forming of an elastic rubber body, a first attaching part having a first attaching hole, a second attaching part having a second attaching hole inserted with a support member from an exhaust pipe, and a pair of main springs for connecting the first and second attaching parts to each other. The base portion is inserted into the first attaching hole, and the front bent portion is inserted into a space formed between the first and second attaching parts.
However, the exhaust pipe support structure of document JP 2000-120785 has the problem that the rubber member has to be provided with a sufficiently high strength and that noise and vibrations are caused due to frequent contact between the supporting member and the main springs which do only allow movement of the support device main body in relatively narrow angles.